LOOK BACK ON THE WASHINGTON SUMMIT


Atlantic Council at the NATO Summit in Washington

Live commentary, authoritative analysis, and high-level events covering NATO’s Washington summit, courtesy of our experts.

Essays on the Alliance’s future

NATO’s seventy-fifth anniversary is a milestone in a remarkable story of reinvention, adaptation, and unity. However, as the Alliance seeks to secure its future for the next seventy-five years, it faces revanchist old rivals, escalating strategic competition, and uncertainties over the future of the rules-based international order. 

With partners and allies turning attention from celebrations to challenges, the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative invited contributors to engage with the most pressing concerns ahead of the historic Washington summit and chart a path for the Alliance’s future. This series features seven essays focused on concrete issues that NATO must address at the Washington summit and five essays that examine longer-term challenges the Alliance must confront to ensure transatlantic security. 

Related program

The Transatlantic Security Initiative, in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.

Content

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama, Jan. 16, 2015

NATOSource

Jan 16, 2015

David Cameron ‘Endangering Special Relationship with America’ by not Protecting Defense Spending

By Ben Riley-Smith, Telegraph

David Cameron will damage Britain’s special relationship with America if he fails to keep defence spending above 2 per cent of GDP, the UK’s former defence attaché in Washington DC has warned.

NATO Security & Defense
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Jan. 14, 2015

NATOSource

Jan 15, 2015

NATO Chief Urges Germany to Invest More in Defense

By NATO and AFP

From Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, NATO:  I also would like to underline that we have to invest more in defence. We agreed to do so at our Summit in Wales.

Germany NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Jan. 14, 2015

NATOSource

Jan 14, 2015

NATO’s Interim ‘Spearhead’ Force is Now Active

By AP

NATO’s interim agile expeditionary force is now active but planning continues for a permanent “spearhead” unit, the alliance’s chief said Wednesday.

NATO Security & Defense
US and Polish Paratroopers, April 23, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 13, 2015

SACEUR: NATO Looking at Beefing Up Baltic Exercises

By Wiktor Szary, Reuters

NATO’s top military commander, General Philip Breedlove, said on Tuesday the defense alliance was looking at beefing up its exercises in the Baltic Sea region in response to a surge in Russian military maneuvers there late last year.

NATO Russia
SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, June 30, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 13, 2015

NATO Military Commander: Fighting Has Resumed in Eastern Ukraine

By Henry Foy, Financial Times

Nato’s top general has noted a “fairly important uptick” in fighting in eastern Ukraine in recent days, casting doubts over whether the cease-fire between the Kiev government and Moscow-backed separatists can survive.

NATO Russia
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Oct. 29, 2011

NATOSource

Jan 12, 2015

Canada Rebuffs Call To Join British-Led NATO-UN Force

By Murray Brewster, Canadian Press

Canada has quietly rebuffed a call from Britain to join a multi-national expeditionary force that Prime Minister David Cameron’s government was promoting in light of heightened tensions with Russia.

International Organizations NATO
Leaders of Italy, Ukraine, USA, UK, Germany, and Italy at the NATO Summit in Wales, Sept. 9, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 9, 2015

The Crisis in the West is Deeper than the Dismemberment of Ukraine

By Eliot Cohen, American Interest

It does not matter whether Khrushchev was wise in giving the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, or how it came to be that eastern Ukraine is largely populated by native Russian speakers.

Europe & Eurasia NATO
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, Oct. 14, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 8, 2015

Poland to Seek NATO Response to Russia’s Military Exercises

By Wiktor Szary and Pawel Sobczak, Reuters

Poland expects the NATO alliance to step up its military exercises around the Baltic Sea after a flurry of activity by Russian warships and jet fighters in the area last month, Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told Reuters in an interview.

NATO Poland
EUCOM commander Gen. Philip Breedlove, July 1, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 8, 2015

Commander of US Forces in Europe Says Base Closures Will Enhance ‘Operational Readiness’

By Philip Breedlove, EUCOM

Today, the Department of Defense announced the results of European Infrastructure Consolidation.

Europe & Eurasia NATO
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Oct. 1, 2014

NATOSource

Jan 7, 2015

Putin Signs New Military Doctrine Naming NATO as Russia’s Top Threat

By AP and Reuters

From Vladimir Isachenkov, AP:  Russia identified NATO as the nation’s No. 1 military threat and raised the possibility of a broader use of precision conventional weapons to deter foreign aggression under a new military doctrine signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday [Dec. 26, 2014].

Europe & Eurasia NATO

Experts

Events